Escondido PD gets more mileage out of cars, cops

There’s only one police department in the county where all officers can take home the patrol cars they drive, authorities say.

That department is in Escondido, where the perk is used for recruiting job applicants and officers say they are more likely to make arrests or perform other duties if they drive a marked car during their daily commute.

“I do make stops on a somewhat regular basis on my way home or on my way to work,” Officer Tom Venable said.

At many other departments, only some officers can take home their vehicles. They could include officers who care for police dogs, traffic officers who drive motorcycles, and detectives and officers who are on call. Departments might have a mileage limit for those situations, however.

In a program established in 1982, the Escondido department assigns patrol cars to all officers and allows them to commute up to 10 miles. The department pays all gasoline and maintenance costs on the vehicles.

For the past several years, the department’s detectives, negotiators and members of its Tactical Operations Unit – or SWAT team – have been allowed to commute up to 40 miles, with a few driving farther than that.

The issue of officers driving farther than 10 miles was raised during the most recent City Council campaign. Olga Diaz, who was elected to the council Nov. 4, suggested the city should reconsider the policy as it looks for ways to trim spending in a tight budget year.

“The expanded mileage sort of crept in there,” said Diaz, who is married to an Escondido police lieutenant.

Diaz said she supports allowing officers to commute up to 10 miles, but commuting farther became an obvious expense when gas prices skyrocketed this year.

Escondido police say the program generally allows them to respond faster to emergencies, such as last year’s wildfires, because they don’t have to go to the department’s station on West Grand Avenue first.

Venable said he arrived faster to a running gunbattle with a burglar in 2001 because he had his own patrol car.

“I was able just to leave directly from my house and go to the shooting scene,” he said. “That easily saved 45 minutes to an hour.”

Officers said they take better care of their cars, too, with patrol cars sometimes lasting more than 10 years.

“You take care of something more if you treat it as if it’s your own,” Venable said.

Lt. Bob Benton, a department spokesman, said officers are making traffic stops on a daily basis, “enforcing laws that normally they wouldn’t do because they’re in their personal cars.”

Benton said other agencies with similar programs are the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Visalia police departments.

According to a February city report, Escondido could save nearly $122,000 a year by setting the mileage limit back to 10 miles for all officers. The report estimated that 55 officers who commute farther than 10 miles one way drive more than 2,700 miles a day and more than 569,000 miles a year. That includes K-9 officers.

Detectives account for more than $40,000 of the total, according to the report. Negotiators and Tactical Operations Unit members account for more than $56,000, it states. The city report assumed gas prices of $3 per gallon.

Some officers commute nearly 40 miles – or beyond. The report states that one detective commutes more than 55 miles, two negotiators commute more than 40 miles and two detectives commute 39.99 miles.

A policy change made about six months ago says new officers can commute no farther than 10 miles, said acting Sgt. Eric Skaja, president of the Escondido Police Officers Association.

Skaja said members of the department’s Tactical Operations Unit, who can still commute beyond 10 miles, would give up the perk if it meant keeping the team from being cut in a tough budget year.

“Everybody realizes how bad the economy is,” Skaja said.

Officers say it is a powerful recruiting tool, as they often live outside the cities they patrol.

“That was one of the main things that drew me here was having your own car,” Officer Matt Dixon said.

Dixon commutes from Riverside County with another officer who is a negotiator. In 2005, before they could commute in a patrol car more than 10 miles, they encountered an accident north of Escondido – on Interstate 15 south of Deer Springs Road – about 7 a.m.

Dixon and two other officers rushed to assist, and a passer-by had a fire extinguisher to help put out the blaze in the sport utility vehicle. One of the officers wrapped his face with a flannel shirt to get close to the burning SUV.

A woman in her 20s survived the crash, but a man didn’t. Dixon said he talked with the other officers afterward about how it would have been easier to assist if they had been in a patrol car.

“In my car, I have Nomex gloves, things to cover my face, all kinds of tools,” he said. “We all said it right away.”

Dixon said he has helped other motorists, such as a driver who had a flat tire a few months ago, since he has been commuting home in a patrol car.

“Basically, the department’s getting another hour of service out of me for free,” he said.

Officers aren’t just taking home the department’s Ford Crown Victorias, its traditional police cruisers. Benton said the department also has two Dodge Chargers, a Chevy Camaro, a Chevy Tahoe and 42 unmarked cars including Chevy Impalas and Malibus.

Officer Ryan Fien, a police dog handler who has been driving one of the Chargers for about a year and a half, said it handles well, offers more room than the Crown Victoria and hasn’t required repairs.

About a year ago, Fien was driving home to Temecula during a heavy rain after his shift ended at 4 p.m. On his way, he encountered four accidents on Interstate 15 in San Diego County and stopped to assist at all of them.

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